212 BULLETIN 107, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
were then easily killed, and their feathers removed by immersing the birds 
in scalding water, which. was ready at hand in large kettles set for this 
purpose. The bodies were used as fuel for boiling the water. 
The remains of the huts and pounds are still on the island, but 
the birds are no more! The quantity of great auk’s bones and even 
of mummified remains found on Funk Island by Lucas and others 
all testify to the destruction that went on there. 
It would seem as if nature herself wished to help in the destruc- 
tion of this bird, for, in 1830, a submarine eruption took place off 
Reykjanes, Iceland, during which a skerry frequented by great auks 
sank under water. 
As in the case of many species that have become extinct, men at 
the time have not realized the fact. Thus, in 1848, Hugh Strickland 
makes no mention of the great auk in a paper on species recently 
extinct. Yarrell in 1842 speaks of it as “a very rare British bird,” 
but no hint is given of its probable fate. When the fact of its 
extreme rarity was discovered, it was believed that it had merely 
retreated into the more inaccessible northern regions and Arctic 
expeditions were requested to search for it. 
Nesting.—As has been pointed out by Lucas (1887) the gregarious 
habits of the great auk and its predilection for certain breeding 
places has been an important factor in its extermination. He goes 
on to say that there were apparently plenty of suitable breeding 
grounds for the great auk in Maine and Labrador, and had the bird 
bred in small colonies at localities scattered along this wide expanse 
of territory, it would have been in existence to-day. The habits of 
the great auk are largely matters of history to be gathered from old 
writers. It bred in colonies on rocky islands as has already been 
shown; and possibly, although not probably, on sandy shores. No 
nest was built, and the single egg was laid on the bare rock or the 
accumulation of guano. Pennant (1765) says: 
If the egg is taken away it will not lay another that season * * * It 
lays its egg close to the sea mark, being incapable, by reason of the shortness 
of its wings, to mount higher. 
The later statement is not entirely correct for the bird as at Funk 
Island, already described often nested a considerable distance from 
the water. 
'ggs.—[Author’s note: The series of 10 eggs of this extinct bird 
in the Thayer Museum is probably the finest series of these rare 
eggs in existence in any one collection. In shape they are nearly 
“ovate pyriform” and suggest in general appearance large murre’s 
eggs. The shell is thick, tough and roughly granulated. The 
ground color is dull, dirty white or even yellowish white in one. 
This yellowish egg is covered quite uniformly with fine scrawls or 
irregular lines of pale gray or drab. The other eggs are more conspic- 
